Makoto Kashino
Makoto Kashino (樫野真 Kashino Makoto) is one of the three male leads in Yumeiro Patissiere. His dream is to become a first class chocolatier like his uncle. With his good looks and top-notch skills, he is one of the school's "Sweet Princes," specializing in chocolate sweets. He is in Group A of his 8th grade class, and his teammates consist of Ichigo Amano, Satsuki Hanabusa, and childhood friend Sennosuke Andou. His Sweets Spirit is Chocolat, whose name is the same as her specialty. Personality Background Makoto comes from a long line of doctors; his family owns the largest hospital in the town near St. Marie Academy. Every member of his family is a doctor or nurse, and his father--director of the hospital and mother both severely disapprove of his goal to become a patissier. Because of this, his family gave him one strict condition for his attendance to St. Marie: he must always, without fail, be first in his class. Kashino has never once broken this promise, and remained first in his class even while studying abroad in Paris in season 2. Because of his amazing grades, he was allowed to skip ahead one year at the beginning of the season. Kashino is unsociable, straightforward, uncompromising, short-tempered and has a picky character; except for Andou, he ignored all initial attempts at friendship made by Satsuki Hanabusa and the Sweets Spirits. He was also extremely cold, even somewhat sadistic, to Ichigo Amano from the beginning, though his softer nature did shine through at times. He often reduced her to shouting "You sadist! Devil!" and other similar insults because of his Spartan style of teaching. Even his nice side, in its own way, has thorns. He takes great care in handling chocolate, as it is his goal to be a first-rate chocolatier. This dream was birthed during the days he spent at his uncle's chocolate shop. This uncle was originally from outside the family, so he was begrudgingly allowed to retain his job as a chocolatier. Makoto spent a lot of time in his shop as a small child, watching him carefully temper the chocolate and turn it into many multi-colored sparkling creations. The admiration created his dream of being a chocolatier like his uncle, which he has fought for ever since. In episode 18, Ichigo places a bet with Makoto's sister, Miyabi Kashino, which prompts her to eat one of his cakes for the first time. The result brings the siblings to an understanding, as Miyabi finally gives her approval of his dream. Ichigo wishes to try the same method with his parents, but Makoto reveals that his parents would try to squash his dream by not even touching anything he made. Unknown to him, Miyabi lies to their mother about the origins of the cake he made for her, and his mother eats it without knowing it was handmade by her son. He has terrible handwriting but is very good at drawing, and in episode 34 a glimpse of his notebook is revealed, showing part of Ichigo's ponytails. He has terrible sleeping posture, so his hair is always messed up in the morning. He spends 30 minutes in front of the mirror every morning just fixing his hair. We learn from Chocolat that he has a cute little mole on his right butt cheek; the discovery was supposedly an accident, but it's somewhat implied that she was peeking on purpose when he was in the shower. Relationships Amano Ichigo Even though he is hard on Ichigo, he really cares about her and there are indications throughout the series stating that he has romantic feelings for her. On a number of occasions he has helped her to get better at cooking certain dishes and has shown signs of jealousy over her relationships with other boys often; like when Hanabusa kissed her on the cheek, Rick tried to ask her out, or Johnny attempted to monopolize her and win her as his girlfriend through a competition between Beautiful Night Castle and Le Reve Couleur''.'' At the end of season 1, before Team Ichigo headed back to Japan after their training at France, they have a near-confession; still, they both promise that they won't try to move forward in their relationship until they've reached their dreams. At the end of season 2, with their success in Marie's Garden, Kashino finally bursts out with his feelings only to have their moment somewhat comedically interrupted by Johnny and Miya. It is implied that after season 2, they go to London together to construct a new Marie's Garden location under Henri Lucas's invitation. In the manga, there is a variation. Kashino's interest and feelings emerged because of Ichigo's personality. Throughout his life, his interest in women had diminished little by little as many persistent women came after him solely of his looks. Ichigo was very different, and the striking part of her that came to Kashino was the ability to make people smile from her creations. He had told her at the greenhouse during the semis of the Grand Prix,that she shouldn't make something impossible and different, but make a cake that she likes herself, and one that throughly expresses her feelings. He had complimented that her previous cakes for Ringo and Ichita were good, because they had the image of happiness for someone else, and that this time she should make a cake for herself. After Team Ichigo lost to Team Tennouji, he and Ichigo separated, since Ichigo went to work at Salon de Marie and the Sweet Princes went to the high school division to train. However, the next school year revealed Kashino permanently in the high school division instead of returning back to Year 3 in the Middle School division like Hanabusa and Andou. When Ichigo had asked him if he would like to form the team once more for the next grand prix, he replied, "I don't know yet." Ichigo was visibly stunned and hurt, and spent her days deeply thinking about his intentions, for he had told her that he wanted each and everyone to improve themselves separately. It is also seen in the manga that Vanilla updates Kashino on Ichigo daily by sending texts to Chocolat via their spoons. The times at Salon de Marie was one of the biggest changes in Kashino and Ichigo's relationship. During the first few days there, Ichigo was bullied by the high schoolers and scolded by the manager, each seeing Ichigo as a stuck up girl who doesn't know her place. Kashino finds her crying and made her some chocolates, shaped like a four-leaf clover. As Ichigo eats the chocolate, she tells him that each petal was the flavor of Team Ichigo, and that, "I thought it was time for us to become individually stronger...but I, I like thatour team." Full of mixed emotions, she throws herself upon Kashino, who was ready to embrace her back, until Hanabusa and Andou sneaks behind and pricks his hand with a rose thorn, saying that they won't let him "steal a march on us." After a while, as Ichigo was trying to perfect custard for Salon de Marie, he and the rest of Team Ichigo helped her. Kashino, seeing that she wasn't whisking properly, held her hand and instructed her to whisk all the way to the bottom. The memory helped Ichigo continue making the custard the next day during her trial when she suddenly got tendonitis. After getting a text from Vanilla, he looked for her and help wrap up her wrist, wanting to say something after that, but ended up rejecting his thought and walked away, leaving Ichigo in confusion. Kashino's jealously perks up as Julian, the son of Marie the Queen, enters the academy in search of Ichigo. As he and Julian becomes roommates and also partners in the chocolate section of Salon de Marie, his hostility towards Julian almost caused him to be fired if his behavior does not improve. Seeing the trouble, Ichigo asks Kashino to help make a welcome cake for Julian. Kashino, deeply troubled, rejects and idea and angers as he questions if she is planning on "chasing after that bob-hairstyle bastard", to which Ichigo says she just doesn't want Kashino to be kicked out of Salon de Marie. He blushes deeply and agrees to help out, while Chocolat on the sidelines says to herself, "boys are so simple!" The welcome party thrown only worsened the feelings between Kashino and Julian, including the rest of the team who did not like him, even after he was revealed to be the prince of the Sweets Spirits. Julian constantly kisses Ichigo's hand or "flirt" with her in front of Kashino. This negative feeling reaches its heights as the Salon de Marie annual sweets competition opens, and Julian does not participate solely for the purpose of encouraging and advising Ichigo. When Ichigo made a pile of sweets and had Julian tasted it for her, Kashino got extremely angry, to the point when he rejected Ichigo's sweets and declared her as a rival in the competition, and even inviting Sakuragi Ayu, Ichigo's sempai and part of the cream team in Salon de Marie, to taste test each of their sweets in spite of rejecting Ichigo. The night before competition, when he invited Ayu especially to try his cake right in front of Ichigo, she became visibly heartbroken and ran away from the kitchen in tears. Julian later scolds Kashino of being cold and flirting with other girls, to which Kashino shouts,"Who was the one flirting?!" Still concerned, he manages to find Ichigo, who has made her resolve and thought of a cake, not for the competition, but "for Vanilla." As Ichigo is making her new cake, Julian asks if the reason he deserted Ichigo was because he felt she didn't need him anymore. Kashino says it's because he didn't want her to influence his work, and that he wanted to decide what he was going to do himself. This foreshadows the change that would happen with him and Ichigo later on. During the sweets competition, the Sweets Kingdom's cabinet minister arrives and takes away the sweets spirits. He joins Ichigo in travelling to the sweets kingdom to save the spirits. Team Ichigo had to compete against the Court Patissieres for Julian's inauguration of Prince. As Ichigo stirs nervousness as she sees the Court Patissieres' crown cake, Kashino held her hand, which gave Ichigo confidence and assurance. After the spirits had been rescued, Team Ichigo returns to find out that the queen had recommended them to enroll in the French branch of St. Marie Academy. The night before departure, Ichigo wakes up restless and decides to visit the practice room one more time, finding Kashino tempering. Seeing each other, they both plan on making a cake for the queen to thank her. As they make the cake, Kashino reminiscing how Ichigo couldn't even crack an egg, but now she can make cakes that are not only delicious, but make people smile and go "ah!". Ichigo replies that she is also grateful to Kashino, who is actually a very kind person who had helped her whenever she had trouble at Salon de Marie, despite being hot tempered and sadistic. She cuts off there as she realizes she was almost going to confess her feelings. As both cakes are finished, Ichigo suggests to stack the two cakes together, making a "perfect" creation, until both had realized that the cake looked just like a wedding cake. Blushing hotly, Ichigo turns away, saying that she always wanted a wedding cake as a patissiere. Kashino then holds her hand and says, "I would make your birthday cake, and wedding cake, even the person you like's cake", to which Ichigo replies,"me too", and the two of them share their very first kiss. At the end, a timeskip is present, now showing a grown up Kashino and Ichigo (who has grown her hair out long) with their very own shop named "Le Reve Couleur" in Paris. Satsuki Hanabusa From the start, Satsuki left a terrible impression on Makoto. Their personalities and tastes are polar opposites, and Satsuki's outrageous attitude around women makes for a disastrous introduction to the unsociable and blunt Makoto. Still, they eventually became friends after an incident in the woods. Though they often clash when it comes to certain topics, like love, and Hanabusa's narcissism can even get the best of him, he still sees him as a good friend. According to the Kira Kira CD drama tracks, Hanabusa has a habit of taking rose baths, however, he never cleans up after himself which makes Kashino mad. Sennosuke Andou Sennosuke and Makoto are childhood friends and get along very well. He serves as a calm voice of reason for Makoto, who is too short-tempered for his own good; his nurturing nature as an older brother comes out every time Makoto starts picking fights, especially with Satsuki or Ichigo. Before attending one of Makoto's birthday parties, Sennosuke had never eaten an actual western-style cake; in a way, Makoto is the one who introduced him to the dream of combining sweets and wagashi (asian confections) into a completely new creation under his family's shop name, Yumezuki. Sennosuke's nickname for Makoto is "Maa-kun," somewhat of an improvement against his younger brother Ichita's "Mapo-tofu." Chocolat Chocolat is Makoto's spirit partner, and shares many of his hot-and-cold personality quirks. At the start, he rejected Chocolat harshly because he believed that dreams were something to fulfill on your own. This was a real shock for Chocolat; still, she followed him into the woods after Caramel and Sennosuke despite her fear of the dark, and gained his respect in the process. Within the season 1 canon, they have a decent relationship; when Kashino is busy she makes sure not to disturb him, and when Chocolat is missing without notice it bothers him and he even makes a chocolate treat for when she comes back. In season 2, their relationship is seen to have grown a little deeper; they fight like equally bad-tempered siblings, with Chocolat often goading him to take further steps to advance or protect his relationship with Ichigo. Some of her affections for Makoto might be amplified because of her love for Kasshi, a spirit who looks just like him and has the same specialty. Miya Koshiro Miya has made no secret of her love for Makoto, but Makoto has made no secret about his objection to it, either. Miya has been insistent since Makoto's first year at St. Marie, but her smothering has o nly put him off, since she's simply a more extreme version of the women that have chased after him all his life. Miya's affection for him is genuine--she originally fell in love with his critical side, after all--but because of her ridiculous pride, self-centered personality and pampered money-gets-anything way of thinking, her displays end up being more of a public disturbance than anything else. On many occasions Miya has coerced, blackmailed, and even kidnapped Makoto, on a few occasions even forcing him into challenges where he would "have to marry her if she won." The one time she said she would give up on him if he lost, she essentially side-stepped the promise by saying she didn't say "for forever." Henri Lucas Makoto's impression of Henri has been off from the start; with Ichigo's novice level, he could easily question her recruitment, but even worse she almost completely blows the group's Grand Prix practice off when he comes for a visit (ep. 35). Because Henri is so important to Ichigo as someone who made her remember her dream, it's not hard to mistake her adulation for love, which Vanilla does rather quickly; it effectively made for yet another ill impression on Kashino's part. Despite the ill impressions and jealousy, Makoto does have a good level of respect for Henri, especially after the finals of the Japanese Cake Grand Prix where Henri made the point of telling him that, had he really finished the Eiffel Tower on their presentation, he would have given him higher points than the competition. Ricardo Benigni A good match for Satsuki's chivalry and narcissism, Rick taken as a rival by all three of the Sweets Princes from the start, frequently earning glares and a vicious declaration of "Playboy" resounding in all their heads. Makoto doesn't like him in the slightest, seeing as how he's very touchy and affectionate with Ichigo from the start. Even in season 2 Rick's advances towards Ichigo are fought off by a determined Makoto. Keeping him away from Ichigo is also likely to be the only way Makoto and Johnny would ever agree on anything, as declared by the bystanding Chocolat and Maize. Trivia * Makoto at first shows hatred towards Ichigo, but later becomes nicer, which is considered a tsundere. * His sister Miyabi Kashino appeared in two episodes. * He spends 30 minutes in front off the mirror every morning fixing his hair. * On his right butt cheek is a little mole. * Nomenclature ** Makoto (真) - Truth ** His family name Kashino (樫野) can be read as "Evergreen Oak Field" *** 樫 - "evergreen oak" *** 野 - "plains, field, rustic, civilian life" Category:Characters Category:Main Characters Category:Male Characters